Apparatus for teeing golf balls



Jan. 21, 1969 H. G. FRY

APPARATUS FOR TEEING GOLF BALL-S Sheet Filed March 10. 1966 Jan. 21, 1969 H. G. FRY

APPARATUS FOR TEEING GOLF BALLS Sheet 2 of?) Filed March 10. 1966 S'IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Jan. 21, 1969 FR I APPARATUS FOR TEEING GOLF BALLS Sheet 3 015 Filed March 10, 1966 United States Patent 3,423,097 APPARATUS FOR TEEING GOLF BALLS Henry Gordon Fry, Ferndown, Dorset, England, assignor to Chalwyn Limited, Parkstone, Dorset, England, a British company Filed Mar. 10, 1966, Ser. No. 533,182 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Mar. 11, 1965, 10,411/ 65 US. Cl. 273-201 2 Claims Int. Cl. A63b 57/00; F41c /00 ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Apparatus for successively presenting golf balls on a tee ready for driving, with a tee, a manually operable lever for moving the tee into an upper position for driving of a golf ball thereon or a lower position for reloading, a drum having peripheral pockets each adapted to contain a golf ball delivered from a chute and an indexing lever connected to the lever moving the tee and having a hooked end engagable with pins disposed around the drum so that, as the tee moves to the upper position, the hooked end engages another pin and as the tee moves to its lower position, rotates the drum thereby dumping a golf ball onto the tee and presenting an empty pocket to the chute to be refilled.

The present invention relates to apparatus for teeing golf balls.

The invention has as its object the provision of apparatus, e.g., for use in indoor or outdoor practice ranges, whereby golf balls may be successively presented on a tee ready for driving and to this end comprises a tee, means for moving said tee into an upper and a lower position and means for successively positioning golf balls on said tee when the tee is in its lowermost position so that said balls will be presented for driving when the tee is in its upper position.

The said means for successively positioning golf balls on said tee may comprise a drum or wheel or like means mounted for intermittent rotation and having one or more apertures or pockets in its periphery adapted to receive a golf ball from a supply thereof at a receiving station and to transport said ball to a delivery station where the ball is positioned on the tee when the tee is in its lower position, means being provided for indexing the drum or wheel or like means in co-ordination with the movements of the tee so that each time the tee is moved to its lower position a fresh ball will be at or brought to said delivery station for positioning thereon.

Guide means may be provided for guiding the tee when it is moved into its upper and lower positions and such guide means may comprise a vertical rod or rail on which the tee is mounted for sliding movement. The means for moving the tee into its upper and lower positions may comprise a lever one end of which is pivotally connected to the tee and the other end of which is connected to a fixed pivot, the arrangement being such that when the lever is pivoted around its fixed pivot the tee will be raised or lowered. Any suitable means may be provided for pivoting the lever about its fixed pivot and although it is preferred that such means be mechanical or electrical, e.g., a suitable motor or solenoid being provided, the means can if desired be manual, e.g., may comprise a suitable actuating rod or lever.

In order to index the drum or wheel or like means in co-ordination with the movements of the tee the said lever may comprise one arm of a bell crank lever the other arm of which extends at an angle therefrom at that end thereof which is connected to said fixed pivot, the free end of said other arm being pivotally connected 3,423,097 Patented Jan. 21, 1969 to one end of an indexing lever the other end of which is hooked to engage one or more of a plurality of spaced pins projecting outwardly from a side wall of said drum or wheel or like means, the arrangement being such that when said bell crank lever is pivoted to move the tee to its upper position the indexing lever will be moved to a position in which the hooked end thereof engages one or more of said spaced pins and when said bell crank lever is pivoted to move the tee to its lower position the indexing lever will be moved in the opposite direction and will rotate the drum, wheel or like means so as to bring a fresh ball to the delivery station, e.g., when the drum, wheel or like means is provided with four evenly spaced ball-receiving apertures in its periphery will rotate said drum, wheel or like means through The apparatus according to the invention may be mounted below a stand or platform on a practice range on which a person practising driving from the tee may stand; the tee, together with a ball thereon, projecting through a hole in said stand or platform when in its upper position. Conveniently said practice range may be provided with one or more sloping guide channels or other suitable means whereby when a ball has been driven from the tee, e.g., towards a suitable target, screen or net, the ball will roll and be returned to said receiving station.

In order to prevent damage to the golf club or injury to a person holding the golf club should the club strike the tee when a ball is driven therefrom the tee may be formed from rubber or other suitable resilient material and/or may be pivotally mounted and may be retained in an upright position by suitable resilient or releasable means, e.g., by means of a spring clip, so that under the impact of the club the tee will turn about its said pivot. When the tee is pivotally mounted and is retained in an upright position by means of a spring clip cam or other suitable means may be provided for returning the tee to its upright position.

In order that the invention may be the more readily understood reference will hereinafter be made by way of example to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation and FIG. 2 is a plan view with the top cover removed of one embodiment of apparatus according to the invention,

FIG. 3 is a side elevation, partly in section, of another embodiment of apparatus according to the invention and FIG. 4 is a plan view thereof.

The apparatus illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 comprises a tee 1 of rubber or other suitable resilient material which is movable by means of a lever 2 into an upper and a lower position along a vertical guide 3, the tee 1 being shown in its lower position in the drawings. The lever 2 is forked at one end to provide arms 4 which are slotted at 5 to engage pins 6 on tee 1 and at its other end is pivotally mounted on a fixed pivot pin 7. The lever 2 comprises one arm of a bell crank lever the other arm 8 of which is welded thereto, although if desired the arm 8 could be a separate lever, in which case the lever 2 and arm 8 could be fixedly connected to pivot pin 7 as by means of grub screws. The free end of arm 8 is pivotally connected to one end of an indexing lever 9 the other end of which is hooked at 10 and 11 to engage spaced pins 12 projecting outwardly from a side Wall 13 of drum 14. Drum 16 is mounted for intermittent rotation about an axle 15 and has four apertures, or pockets 16 evenly spaced around the periphery thereof and each adapted to receive a golf ball from a supply thereof at receiving station 17 and deliver it in a manner to be explained to delivery station 18. An arcuate plate 19 is provided for preventing a ball entering an aperture or pocket 16 at receiving station 17 being discharged before it reaches delivery station 18.

In operation, when tee 1 reaches its lower position as illustrated and a fresh ball has been brought to delivery station 18 by an indexing movement of drum 14 the ball will roll under gravity from its aperture or pocket 16 and will be positioned on the tee 1 by means of a suitable cage or other guide means (not illustrated). By operation of lever 2 the tee will then be moved to its upper position to present the ball thereon for driving. During the course of such operation of lever 2 the arm 8 will act to move indexing lever 9 to the right in the aspect of FIG. 1 so that hooks 10 and 11 engage the two uppermost pins 12 on drum 14. When lever 2 is again operated to move tee .1 to its lower position indexing lever 9 will be returned to its original illustrated position under the action of arm 8 and will cause the drum 14 to rotate through 90 to deliver a fresh ball to receiving station 18.

In the illustrated embodiment the lever 2 is shown as being manually operable by means of a rod 20. Such rod 20 is, however, only provided for illustrative purposes and as previously explained it is perferred that lever 2 should be operable by suitable mechanical or electrical means, e.g., as by means of a suitable electric motor or solenoid which may be actuated by a suitable switch or switches, e.g., by means of a suitable foot switch provided on a platform or stand beneath which the apparatus according to the invention is mounted.

In order to prevent damage to the golf club or injury to a person holding the golf club should the club strike the tee 1 when a ball is driven therefrom the tee 1 is, as previously stated, formed from rubber or other suitable resilient material and is also pivoted at 1a to its support 1b so that it will turn about said pivot 1a under the impact of the club. The tee is releaseably retained in its illustrated upright position by means of spring clip 2.1. If desired suitable cam or other means may be provided for automatically returning the tee 1 to its upright position after a pivotal movement as aforesaid, e.g., such cam or other means being adapted to act on the tee 1 and return it to its upright position during the course of its movement to its lower position.

The apparatus may be mounted below a stand or platform on a practice range on which a person practising driving from the tee may stand; the tee, together with a ball thereon, projecting through a aperture 22 in the top cover 23 of the apparatus and through a hole or aperture in said stand or platform when in its upper position. Conveniently said practice range may be provided with one or more sloping guide channels or other suitable means whereby when a ball has been driven from the tee, e.g., towards a suitable target, screen or net, the ball will roll and be returned to said receiving station. In the illustrated embodiment a sloping guide channel along which golf balls will successively roll under gravity into pockets or apertures 16 is diagrammatically shown at 24.

The apparatus may be contained within a suitable casing which may -be either complete or partial. In the illustrated embodiment the apparatus is contained within a partial casing comprising top cover 23, which is apertured at 22 as aforesaid, bottom wall 25, side Wall 26 and end walls 27, 28. Fixed pivot pin 7 is mounted at one end in an aperture in side wall 26 and at its other end is mounted in an aperture in side strut 29. Likewise axle is mounted at one end in an aperture in side wall 26 and at its other end is mounted in an aperture in side strut 30.

Referring now to the embodiment shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, in which like parts have been given like reference numerals, it will be seen that basically the apparatus of this embodiment is the same as that of the embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2 except that the lever 2 has only a single slotted arm 4 engaging a single headed pin 6 on the tee support 1b and the apparatus of this embodiment is adapted for electrical operation as follows.

The tee 1 in the embodiment of FIGS. 3 and 4 is adapted to be raised and lowered by means of an electric motor (not shown) on the spindle 31 of which is mounted a rotary cam 32 which contacts a cam follower 33 on an extension 2a of the lever 2 beyond the fixed pivot 7, the arrangement being such that as the cam 32 is rotated by operation of the electric motor the tee 1 will be either raised or lowered according to the position of the cam 32. The cam follower 33 is maintained in contact with the periphery of the cam 32 by means of spring 34 one end of which is attached to indexing lever 9 and the other end of which is attached to a bracket 35 on end wall 27.

The apparatus is designed for use in conjunction with a coin-actuated mechanism (not illustrated) whereby when a coin of predetermined denomination is inserted into a slot provided operation of the apparatus will be initiated and will continue either for a predetermined period of time or to consecutively present a predetermined number of balls for driving. When not in use the tee 1 will remain in its lower position as illustrated until such time as a coin is inserted into the coin-actuated mechanism when operation of the electric motor will be initiated and cam 32 will be rotated to raise the tee 1 and a ball thereon to its upper position illustrated in dotted outline in FIG. 3, whereupon the electric motor will be stopped by a contact member 43 attached to cam 32 at 44 tripping the actuating arm 42 of micro-switch 41 which is so Wired as to stop the motor until such time as the ball thus presented is driven. When the ball on the tee 1 is driven the tee 1 will hinge downwardly about its pivot 1a under the impact of the club and the end 1d of a cranked member 10 attached thereto will contact the actuating arm 36 of a micro switch 37 to re-start the electric motor and rotation of the cam 32 to move the tee 1 to its lower position where, by virtue of the design of cam 32, the tee 1 will remain for a sufiicient period of time for a fresh ball to be positioned thereon from the drum 14. Continuing its actuation the cam 32 will then raise the tee 1, together with the fresh ball thereon, to its upper position when the motor will again be stopped due to cam 32 reaching a position where contact member 44 trips actuating arm 42 of micro switch 41. This sequence will continue for a predetermined period of time or until a predetermined number of balls have been presented for driving, whereafter the tee 1 will be returned to and remain in its lower position until a further coin is inserted and a fresh sequence is initiated.

In order to insure that the tee 1 is returned to and remains in its lower position after a predetermined period of time or when a predetermined number of balls have been driven a micro switch 40 is provided which is wired to the coin-actuated timing or counting mechanism and which only becomes operative when said predetermined period of time has expired or when a predetermined number of balls have been driven, the micro switch 40 being so wired that when said predetermined period of time has expired or when said predetermined number of balls have been driven the cycle will continue until the actuating screw 38 on lever 2 trips the actuating lever 39 of microswitch 40 when the motor will be stopped and the cycle will be interrupted with the tee 1 in its lower position.

In order to ensure that a ball brought to the delivery station 18 by drum 14 and rolling by gravity from a pocket 16 is correctly positioned on tee 1 and remains thereon during the raising of the tee the arrangement is such that a said ball will be located between the five points defined by the vertical guide 3 and the four arms of the channel members shown in cross-section in FIG. 4.

In order that the height of presentation of a ball on tee 1 above a platform or the like under which the apparatus is mounted may be adjusted an adjustable stop 45 is provided which can be moved into or out of its supporting bracket 46 by means of a Bowden or other suitable mechanism 47 and which is so positioned that it will be contacted by lever 2 when this lever reaches a predetermined raised position so as to stop further upward movement of the lever and hence of the tee 1, the extent of projection of the tee 1 (and hence the height of presentation of a ball thereon) above a said platform or the like being determined by the position of the stop 45 and the consequent angle of the lever 2 when upward movement thereof is stopped by stop 45.

As will be seen from the drawings the side wall 26 has been omitted in the embodiment of FIGS. 3 and 4, the fixed pivot pin 7 being mounted at one end only in a side strut 29a and the axle 15 of drum 13 being mounted at one end only in a side strut 30a.

In the illustrated embodiments the drum 14 is adapted to deliver a single golf ball at a time to a single tee 1. It will readily be appreciated, however, that if desired the drum 14 could be of a greater width and could be provided with a plurality of apertures or pockets 16 across the width thereof adapted to deliver a plurality of golf balls simultaneously to a plurality of spaced tees 1 which could be interlocked for movement into their upper and lower positions by means of a common lever 2.

The apparatus illustrated may be associated with a screen and computer means for tracking driven balls, and operation of such means may be initiated by cams (not shown) fixed to motor spindle 31.

What I claim is:

1. Apparatus for successively presenting golf balls on a tee ready for driving comprising a tee, means for moving said tee into an upper and a lower position, means for successively positioning golf balls on said tee when the tee is in its lowermost position so that sid balls will be presented for driving when the tee is in its upper position, said means for successively positioning golf balls on said tee comprising a drum having pockets in its periphery each adapted to contain a golf ball, means actuated by said tee moving means for intermittently rotating said drum in coordination with the movements of the tee is in its lowermost position so that said balls will for feeding golf balls into said pockets, a delivery station and means for discharging a ball transported in a said pocket from the receiving station to the delivery station from the pocket and onto the tee, a vertical guide member on which said tee is mounted for sliding movement, a two armed tee-actuating lever one arm of which is pivotally connected to said tee and the other arm of which is connected to one end of an indexing lever the other end of which is hooked, and a plurality of pins on said drum adapted to be engaged by said hooked end of said indexing lever so that when the tee is moved by said tee-actuating lever from its upper to its lower position said drum will be rotated by said indexing lever.

2. Apparatus for successively presenting golf balls on a tee ready for driving comprising a tee, means for moving said tee into an upper and lower position, means for successively positioning golf balls on said tee when the tee is in its lowermost position so that said balls will be presented for driving when the tee is in its upper position, said means for successively positioning golf balls on said tee comprising a drum having pockets in its periphery each adapted to contain a golf ball, means actuated by said tee moving means for intermittently rotating said drum in coordination with the movements of the tee, a receiving station, means at said receiving station for feeding golf balls into said pockets, at delivery station and means for discharging a ball transported in said pocket from the receiving station to the delivery station from the pocket and onto the tee, a tee support on which said tee is pivotally mounted so that it can hinge downwardly when it is in its upper position and it is struck by a club during the driving of a ball thereon, releasable spring means for retaining said tee in a normally upright position, a vertical guide member on which said tee support is mounted for vertical sliding movement, a tee-actuating lever one end of which is pivotally connected to said tee, a fixed pivot to which the said tee-actuating lever is pivotally connected near its other end, an electric motor, rotatable cam means driven by said motor, a cam follower on said tee-actuating lever, said cam follower being in contact with said cam means so that when said cam means is rotated said tee will be raised or lowered, a second lever one end of which is connected to said teeactuating lever, said second lever extending at an angle to said tee-actuating lever, an indexing lever one end of which is pivotally connected to the free end of said second lever and the other end of which is hooked, a plurality of pins on said drum adapted to be engaged by said hooked end of said indexing lever so that when the tee is moved by said tee-actuating lever from its upper to its lower position said drum will be rotated by said indexing lever, switch means actuable by a downward hingeing movement of said tee relative to said support when the tee is in its upper position to start said motor and move said tee first to its lower position for the positioning of a fresh ball thereon and then returning it to its upper position and further switch means for stopping said motor when the tee is in its upper position.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,358,125 12/1920 Sturk 124-51 XR 1,454,947 5/ 1923 Bechtol et al.

2,838,313 6/1958 Mozel 273201 3,142,488 7/1964 Portteus 273201 3,298,694 1/1967 Turnau et al. 273-201 2,948,536 8/1960 Koener 273-201 ANTON O. OECHSLE, Primary Examiner. PAUL E. SHAPIRO, Assistant Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R. 

